Less expensive and more environmentally appropriate than conventional engineering approaches, constructed ecosystems are a promising technology for environmental problem solving. Undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals need an introductory text that details the biology and ecology of this rapidly developing discipline, known as... more...

The modern southwestern cities of Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and El Paso occupy lands that once supported rich desert ecosystems. Typical development activities often resulted in scraping these desert lands of an ancient living landscape, to be replaced with one that is human-made and dependent on a large consumption of energy and natural... more...

With radical and innovative design solutions, everyone could be living in buildings and settlements that are more like gardens than cargo containers, and that purify air and water, generate energy, treat sewage and produce food - at lower cost. Birkeland introduces systems design thinking that cuts across academic and professional boundaries and the... more...

Janis Birkeland presents the innovative new paradigm of 'Positive Development' in which the built environment provides greater life quality, health, amenity and safety for all without sacrificing resources or money. With a different form of design, development itself can become a 'sustainability solution'. A cornerstone of this new paradigm is the... more...